AP News in Brief at 6:04 a.m. EDT

Trump begins planning for Putin-Zelenskyy meeting while affirming US help with security guarantees

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Monday he’s begun arrangements for a face-to-face meeting between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy to discuss a pathway to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, while affirming that the U.S. would back European security guarantees aimed at preventing Moscow from reinvading its neighbor once the current conflict ends.

Details of the security guarantees and Trump’s efforts to arrange peace talks were still evolving as an extended meeting among Trump, Zelenskyy and other European leaders wrapped up at the White House.

But as they emerged from their talks, the leaders expressed guarded optimism that Trump could be finding momentum in his quest to fulfill his campaign promise of ending the grinding war.

The “most important” outcome of the meeting was the “U.S. commitment to work with us on providing security guarantees,” French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters.

Trump said he would forge ahead with arrangements for a meeting between Zelenskyy and Putin. He spoke by phone with Putin during Monday’s talks with Zelenskyy and the leaders of Britain, Finland, France, Germany and Italy as well as the president of the European Commission and head of NATO.

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Takeaways from Trump’s meeting with Zelenskyy and Europeans: Praise, security talks, more meetings

WASHINGTON (AP) — During their second meeting in the Oval Office this year, President Donald Trump said the U.S. would be willing to support European efforts to police any peace deal in Ukraine, while its leader, Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressed his gratitude and wore dressier clothes.

And Vice President JD Vance kept his mouth shut.

As Trump hosted Zelenskyy and top European leaders to energize months of stalled U.S.-led efforts to halt Russia’s 3 1/2-year-old war, the tone and style of the sit-down was far different than when Ukraine’s president was hounded out of the White House in February.

Following the talks, Trump called and spoke at length to Russian President Vladimir Putin who got the red carpet treatment at a summit with Trump last Friday in Alaska, to discuss the extraordinary gathering of allies. Trump said he would now work to arrange a meeting between Zelenskyy and Putin.

Here are key takeaways:

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Hurricane Erin forces evacuations on North Carolina’s Outer Banks, threatens dangerous rip currents

Holly Andrzejewski hadn’t yet welcomed her and her family’s first guests to the Atlantic Inn on Hatteras Island when she had to start rescheduling them, as Hurricane Erin neared North Carolina’s Outer Banks on Tuesday and threatened to whip up wild waves and tropical force winds.

Although the monster storm is expected to stay offshore, evacuations were ordered on such barrier islands along the Carolina coast as Hatteras as authorities warned the storm could churn up dangerous rip currents and swamp roads with waves of 15 feet (4.6 meters).

Andrzejewski and her husband purchased the bed-and-breakfast, known as the oldest inn on the island, less than a week ago. By Monday they had brought in all the outdoor furniture and made sure their daughter and her boyfriend, who are the innkeepers, had generators, extra water and flashlights as they stayed behind to keep an eye on the property.

“It’s just one of those things where you know this is always a possibility and it could happen, and you just make the best out of it. Otherwise you wouldn’t live at the beach,” said Andrzejewski, who will also remain on the island, at her home about a 15 minutes’ drive away.

Erin lashed part of the Caribbean with rain and wind Monday. Forecasters are confident it will curl north and away from the eastern U.S., but tropical storm and surge watches were issued for much of the Outer Banks.

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South Sudanese exiles face uncertain future after release from prison in Sudan

RENK, South Sudan (AP) — As a young man in the mid-1980s, Daud Mahmoud Abdullah left his home in Aweil in South Sudan and headed north. It was a time of war. South Sudan was still part of Sudan and was fighting for independence, in a conflict that would claim about 2 million lives.

He never went back. But now at 60 and after six months in a Sudanese prison, he is closer to home than he’s been in 40 years. This July, he finally crossed the border back into his native South Sudan, taking a deep breath and reminding himself, “I am alive.”

After everything that has happened to him, it feels like a miracle.

Sudan — once his place of refuge — has been embroiled in a brutal civil war since April 2023 that has killed 40,000 people and displaced nearly 13 million more, according to U.N. agencies.

Abdullah lived in Wad Madani, the capital of Al Jazirah state, about 135 kilometers (85 miles) south of Khartoum. There had been incursions into the area by the Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary force once known as the Janjaweed who were notorious for mass killings, rapes and other atrocities in Darfur two decades ago. More recently, the RSF have again been accused of by the International Criminal Court of committing war crimes, including the attacks on famine-hit Zamzam and other camps in North Darfur.

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India’s Modi to meet China’s top diplomat as Asian powers rebuild ties

NEW DELHI (AP) — Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet with China’s top diplomat on Tuesday in a sign of easing tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbors after a yearslong standoff between the Asian powers.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who arrived in India on Monday, is scheduled to hold talks with Modi and other leaders about the disputed border in the Himalayan mountains. Reducing the number of troops on the border and possibly resuming trade in the contested region are expected to be on the agenda.

The rebuilding of ties coincides with friction between New Delhi and Washington after U.S. President Donald Trump imposed steep tariffs on India, a longtime ally seen as a counterbalance against China’s influence in Asia. India is part of the Quad security alliance with the U.S., along with Australia and Japan.

India and China’s decades-old border dispute worsened in 2020 after a deadly clash between their troops in the Ladakh region. The chill in relations affected trade, diplomacy and air travel as both sides deployed tens of thousands of security forces in border areas.

Some progress has been made since then.

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Years after abuse reports, ex-coach at renowned US gymnastics academy is arrested by FBI

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — The U.S. gymnastics world was only just recovering from a devastating sexual abuse scandal when a promising young coach moved from Mississippi to Iowa to take a job in 2018 at an elite academy known for training Olympic champions.

Liang “Chow” Qiao, the owner of Chow’s Gymnastics and Dance Institute in West Des Moines, thought highly enough of his new hire, Sean Gardner, to put him in charge of the club’s premier junior event and to coach some of its most promising girls.

But four years later, Gardner was gone from Chow’s with little notice.

USA Gymnastics, the organization rocked by the Larry Nassar sex-abuse crisis that led to the creation of the U.S. Center for SafeSport, had been informed by the watchdog group that Gardner was suspended from all contact with gymnasts.

The reason for Gardner’s removal wasn’t disclosed. But court records obtained exclusively by The Associated Press show the coach was accused of sexually abusing at least three young gymnasts at Chow’s and secretly recording others undressing in a gym bathroom at his prior job in Mississippi.

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A ship with hundreds of tons of food aid for Gaza nears an Israeli port after leaving Cyprus

LIMASSOL, Cyprus (AP) — After setting off from Cyprus, a ship loaded with 1,200 tons of food supplies for the Gaza Strip was approaching the Israeli port of Ashdod on Tuesday in a renewed effort to alleviate the worsening crisis as famine threatens the Palestinian territory.

The Panamanian-flagged vessel is loaded with 52 containers carrying food aid such as pasta, rice, baby food and canned goods. Israeli customs officials had screened the aid at the Cypriot port of Limassol from where the ship departed on Monday.

Some 700 tons of the aid is from Cyprus, purchased with money donated by the United Arab Emirates to the so-called Amalthea Fund, set up last year for donors to help with seaborne aid. The rest comes from Italy, the Maltese government, a Catholic religious order in Malta and the Kuwaiti nongovernmental organization Al Salam Association.

“The situation is beyond dire,” Cyprus Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos told The Associated Press.

Cyprus was the staging area last year for 22,000 tons of aid deliveries by ship directly to Gaza through a pier operated by the international charity World Central Kitchen and a U.S. military-run docking facility known as the Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore system.

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Menendez brothers to be evaluated by parole board for release after 30 years in prison

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Menendez brothers are set to make their cases for parole starting Thursday, marking the closest they’ve been to winning freedom from prison since their convictions almost 30 years ago for murdering their parents.

Erik and Lyle Menendez were sentenced in 1996 to life in prison for fatally shooting their father, Jose Menendez, and mother, Kitty Menendez, in their Beverly Hills mansion in 1989. They were 18 and 21 at the time. While defense attorneys argued the brothers acted out of self-defense after years of sexual abuse by their father, prosecutors said the brothers killed their parents for a multimillion-dollar inheritance.

The brothers became eligible for parole after a Los Angeles judge in May reduced their sentences from life in prison without the possibility of parole to 50 years to life, making them immediately eligible for parole under California law because they were under the ages of 26 when they committed their crimes.

A panel or two or three parole hearing officers from a board of commissioners appointed by the governor will evaluate the brothers individually. Erik Menendez will have his hearing Thursday morning, followed by Lyle Menendez on Friday, over videoconference from the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego.

The board will assess whether the brothers pose an “unreasonable risk of danger to society” if released, considering factors like criminal history, motivation for the crime and signs of remorse, behavior while in prison and plans for the future, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

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A record 383 aid workers were killed in global hotspots in 2024, nearly half in Gaza, UN says

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — A record 383 aid workers were killed in global hotspots in 2024, nearly half of them in Gaza during the war between Israel and Hamas, the U.N. humanitarian office said Tuesday on the annual day honoring the thousands of people who step into crises to help others.

U.N. humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said the record number of killings must be a wake-up call to protect civilians caught in conflict and all those trying to help them.

“Attacks on this scale, with zero accountability, are a shameful indictment of international inaction and apathy,” Fletcher said in a statement on World Humanitarian Day. “As the humanitarian community, we demand — again — that those with power and influence act for humanity, protect civilians and aid workers and hold perpetrators to account.”

The Aid Worker Security Database, which has compiled reports since 1997, said the number of killings rose from 293 in 2023 to 383 in 2024, including over 180 in Gaza.

Most of the aid workers killed were national staff serving their communities who were attacked while on the job or in their homes, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, known as OCHA.

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Trump vows to change how elections are run. The US Constitution doesn’t give him that power

President Donald Trump on Monday vowed more changes to the way elections are conducted in the U.S., but based on the Constitution there is little to nothing he can do on his own.

Relying on false information and conspiracy theories that he’s regularly used to explain away his 2020 election loss, Trump pledged on his social media site that he would do away with both mail voting — which remains popular and is used by about one-third of all voters — and voting machines — some form of which are used in almost all of the country’s thousands of election jurisdictions. These are the same systems that enabled Trump to win the 2024 election and Republicans to gain control of Congress.

Trump’s post marks an escalation even in his normally overheated election rhetoric. He issued a wide-ranging executive order earlier this year that, among other changes, would have required documented proof-of-citizenship before registering to vote. His Monday post promised another election executive order to “help bring HONESTY to the 2026 Midterm elections.”

The same post also pushed falsehoods about voting. He claimed the U.S. is the only country to use mail voting, when it’s actually used by dozens, including Germany, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

Similar complaints to Trump’s, when aired on conservative and conservative-leaning networks such as Newsmax and Fox News, have led to multimillion dollar defamation settlements, including one announced Monday, because they are full of false information and the outlets have not been able to present any evidence to support them.